There is a tremendous interest in the cellular industry in coming up with ways to provide quality service for in-building environments. In addition, cellular operators are constantly looking for ways to offload capacity from expensive macro-networks to low-cost networks. However, one challenge to making a low-cost cellular wireless access device is the clock module, which is relatively expensive to implement in conventional systems.
The clock module is fundamental to most wireless access points. The overall network integrity is tightly maintained by the clock module. This is typically done by outputting precision frequency and timing accuracy such that all wireless access points and subscriber devices, such as mobile phones, are fully synchronized.
Synchronization is vital when multiple wireless access points are networked into one complete system, such as a network of base stations that are adjacent to each other. A poorly synchronized system may result in an excessive percentage of dropped calls, poor voice quality, low data rates, and the like. However, the cost of implementing and producing a precision clock module is typically in the range of thousands of dollars. Thus, producing a product geared for home use, small office/home office (SOHO), enterprise and/or other low-capacity deployment applications is cost-prohibitive due to the need to include precision clock modules.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method for providing a synchronized clock for a wireless access point. In particular, there is a need for a less expensive method of providing a synchronized clock for a wireless access point such that low-capacity deployment applications may be produced in a cost-effective manner.